I spent yesterday at day 1 of the CIPD Northern Area Partnership conference (#cipdnap16) and before I head back into the breach today, thought I'd capture some reflections - mainly because my brain is quite flighty and I don't want today's content to push yesterday's out!
It's my first of these conferences and I was drawn in by the theme - Even more amazing workplaces - because, well, who doesn't want one of those? It's also very relevant to what's going on in my work world, as we seek to create a culture where people are empowered to work wherever suits them best, and managers have the skills to support them, and be confident that we will achieve the outcomes we need. So I approached each session studiously, pen and paper at the ready, and found loads of interest...my main highlights and reflections being:
@profcarycooper on Wellbeing - I haven't had the pleasure of hearing Sir Cary speak before and he was brilliant. I am a data geek, and he used a massive depth and breadth of research to outline why mental health and wellbeing have a such a big impact on productivity and the economy. I'd heard the message but not the research which gives it credibility before. In relation to a long hours / presenteeism culture, we discussed various IT policies to stop people accessing emails out of hours - but I can't help but feel that this is a sticking plaster, which wouldn't in itself change the culture. It surely comes back to managers knowing when and how their team are working, and being close enough to see and discourage a consistent habit of checking emails when they are meant to be resting and enjoying home life. For me the big takeaway was the focus on hr's role in creating a strategy which reduces stress and equips managers to reduce stress in the environment, rather than reactively focusing on helping employees to deal with it, or picking up the pieces when it goes wrong (though both of these are important!). The question which stayed with me was how we select line managers - how do we assess whether they have or could learn the interpersonal skills to manage humans! Slightly soberingly he estimated that around 10-15% of people managers shouldn't be in charge of people and are unlikely to be able to take on the skills they need!
My first workshop was @timpointer on culture, a really fun interactive session. I loved his image of culture being like a backpack which gets fuller and fuller - sometimes we need to consciously take things out before we can put other things in. A few thoughts which stayed with me from that session - we tend to focus on employees when we think about culture; what about all the people who aren't technically employed but are working in and closely with us? They'll impact culture too. We challenged policies which hold us back - dress codes being a popular one, I was delighted to say we don't have one! - this made me think about whether as we look at big culture change, we may need to do more to policy than just change the ones which directly impact on process changes. Some ideas around welcoming new people - I love the idea of new starters receiving a welcome card from their new team on their first day, and seeing induction as a ritual of welcome - one way of bringing it to life and using someone's first weeks as an opportunity to inspire and engage, rather than a painful period to endure of not quite knowing enough!
I wrote loads down whilst listening to the story of how James Cropper changed their culture to have more of a performance focus. Three striking things. The distinction between who wants change and who wants TO change - how to help people see they are part of the solution. Pace of change - leadership are usually way ahead of the rest of the organisation when it comes to change readiness, but if you go too fast and don't work really hard on bringing the organisation with you, people will get left behind. I think of it as leadership being in a speed boat which can turn on a sixpence, and sometimes forgetting that the organisation is a cruise ship which takes quite a lot longer to turn.
And finally the Ignite sessions - I didn't note much down during these as I was enjoying listening to them too much. But I seem to have ended up with one thought from each speaker. From @timscotthr, let's throw away everything that's stopping us treating people like human beings. Just - yes. There's a day to go but this is a top contender for quote of the conference! From @trustcallhr - it's ok for different parts of an organisation to have different cultures as long as they're built on similar principles (then highlighting the need to be intentional about working out what principles and values are fundamental to us). And @gary_cookson - ten minutes in rhyme, brilliant, with the perfectly expressed reminder that fun doesn't have to be about Google and hammocks and sh*t.
I deliberated for too long this morning about whether it was ok to wear jeans to an event with a business smart dress code, but given how many times we rubbished dress codes yesterday I decided it was ok!
Saturday, 18 June 2016
Thursday, 21 April 2016
A modern fairy tale: the Inbox of Horrors
Once there was a princess.
The princess lived in a beautiful castle with many rooms, and lots of interesting things to see and do.
Life in the castle was happy.
Except...
...that in a tiny room at the top of the tallest tower, the princess had an Inbox of Horrors.
The princess tried as hard as she could to keep the Inbox of Horrors under control. She kept popping up to the tower to keep an eye on it, even though this meant that she couldn't properly concentrate on any of the other things she was trying to do.
She tried methodically opening, reading, and replying to every Horror - but this seemed to just attract more Horrors to the Inbox.
She tried many ways of ordering the Horrors - but the Horrors just would not keep in order.
She tried allocating particular times of the day to look at the Horrors - but leaving them unattended for any period of time just seemed to give them time to multiply, and they were ever so noisy when she opened the box.
Eventually, the only room the princess ever visited was that tiny room at the top of the tower. She spent all her time trying to keep the Horrors under control - but they still weren't happy. And she wasn't doing any of the interesting things that she wanted to do.
She asked her wise fairy godmother what she should do. The Horrors weren't happy; she wasn't happy; she couldn't work out what to do.
The wise fairy godmother thought for a few minutes.
She suggested that the princess reread the Productivity Ninja book which she was so excited about a few months ago. The princess agreed that this might be a good idea, but that it was hard to concentrate on reading whilst sitting on top of the Inbox to keep the noisy Horrors inside.
She reassured the princess that almost everyone had an Inbox of Horrors at the top of their tallest tower, and that almost everyone felt the same way about it.
The princess felt a bit better, but thought it was ridiculous that everyone was spending their time worrying about keeping an Inbox of Horrors under control. She asked the fairy godmother why we couldn't all just stop sending Horrors.
The wise fairy godmother thought for a bit longer.
Sadly, even the fairy godmother wasn't wise enough to answer that question.
But she did at least wave her wand and say a few magic words, which was enough to neatly order, file and flag all the Horrors in the inbox...which kept them happy for the rest of the day.
The princess lived in a beautiful castle with many rooms, and lots of interesting things to see and do.
Life in the castle was happy.
Except...
...that in a tiny room at the top of the tallest tower, the princess had an Inbox of Horrors.
The princess tried as hard as she could to keep the Inbox of Horrors under control. She kept popping up to the tower to keep an eye on it, even though this meant that she couldn't properly concentrate on any of the other things she was trying to do.
She tried methodically opening, reading, and replying to every Horror - but this seemed to just attract more Horrors to the Inbox.
She tried many ways of ordering the Horrors - but the Horrors just would not keep in order.
She tried allocating particular times of the day to look at the Horrors - but leaving them unattended for any period of time just seemed to give them time to multiply, and they were ever so noisy when she opened the box.
Eventually, the only room the princess ever visited was that tiny room at the top of the tower. She spent all her time trying to keep the Horrors under control - but they still weren't happy. And she wasn't doing any of the interesting things that she wanted to do.
She asked her wise fairy godmother what she should do. The Horrors weren't happy; she wasn't happy; she couldn't work out what to do.
The wise fairy godmother thought for a few minutes.
She suggested that the princess reread the Productivity Ninja book which she was so excited about a few months ago. The princess agreed that this might be a good idea, but that it was hard to concentrate on reading whilst sitting on top of the Inbox to keep the noisy Horrors inside.
She reassured the princess that almost everyone had an Inbox of Horrors at the top of their tallest tower, and that almost everyone felt the same way about it.
The princess felt a bit better, but thought it was ridiculous that everyone was spending their time worrying about keeping an Inbox of Horrors under control. She asked the fairy godmother why we couldn't all just stop sending Horrors.
The wise fairy godmother thought for a bit longer.
Sadly, even the fairy godmother wasn't wise enough to answer that question.
But she did at least wave her wand and say a few magic words, which was enough to neatly order, file and flag all the Horrors in the inbox...which kept them happy for the rest of the day.
Wednesday, 20 January 2016
Rome, Rome, Rome
Last weekend, we had the pleasure of a sneaky weekend away in Rome, child-free.
I did a lot of research around places to eat before we went (capital cities, good restaurants book up fast, there are a lot of terrible touristy restaurants...) and we had some amazing food. I'm mainly writing this post so that I don't forget the names of them for the future.
So - Rome. Wow. Really fantastic place with a lot of annoying ticket touts, and people constantly trying to give you sad looking red roses, but somehow spectacular enough that you can really enjoy yourself anyway. Spectacular churches on every corner, such a lot of amazing art, and history everywhere.
I was saddened by the number of people viewing the city entirely through smartphones mounted on selfie sticks - don't people just look at things any more? - but that's a rant for a different day.
Places to eat...
For a great lunch:
Gina (http://www.ginaroma.com/) - just near the Spanish Steps, bright and funky cafe with beautiful soups and salads and pasta, full of Italians on their lunch breaks.
For another great lunch:
Pianostrada (http://pianostrada.com/) - tiny place hidden down a tinier side street in Trastavere. Street food concept, with about 16 seats squeezed in, watching the food being prepped in front of us. Our starter decision was made easy by seeing a foccaccia come out of the oven - that, with fig jam and prosciutto, was possibly the nicest thing I've eaten. Ever. We also had a squash soup with all sorts of interesting flavours sprinkled on top (almond, orange, pickled something or other, parmesan), and a burger which was so beautifully flavoured and so tender that the meat element sort of melted into the rest of it to make one amazing whole. With craft beers. I want to go back...
For a great dinner:
Roscioli (http://www.salumeriaroscioli.com/restaurant/) - a deli and wine shop with tables tucked in amongst the shelves of wine. I had a burrata with sun dried tomatoes....basically a plateful of white, creamy cheese, with tomatoes. So. Much. Deliciousness. And two wine lists: 53 pages of Italian wine, and a second called "Foreign Wine". Really nice atmosphere and they were most kind when Martin poured his wine into his pasta...
And another great dinner:
Casa Coppelle (http://www.casacoppelle.com/) - a bit more fine dining, brilliant cocktails and really interesting menu (red prawn tartare on corn cream - for example!).
All in fairly easy walking distance of the Spanish steps.
I think my favourite sights were discovering the Trevi Fountain at night (having never seen a picture of it) - I raved about this for some time (I may have had some wine first); and also the Forum/Palatine and Colosseum - for sheer scale of archaeological interest. And for art, the collection at the Borghese Gallery (prebook a 2 hour slot) has lots of big hitters (Caravaggio, Bernini) in a very small space.
I have very few pictures - I think I was reacting to the selfie sticks...luckily I looked at things while I was there and have the memories of it!
Do go to Rome...
I did a lot of research around places to eat before we went (capital cities, good restaurants book up fast, there are a lot of terrible touristy restaurants...) and we had some amazing food. I'm mainly writing this post so that I don't forget the names of them for the future.
So - Rome. Wow. Really fantastic place with a lot of annoying ticket touts, and people constantly trying to give you sad looking red roses, but somehow spectacular enough that you can really enjoy yourself anyway. Spectacular churches on every corner, such a lot of amazing art, and history everywhere.
I was saddened by the number of people viewing the city entirely through smartphones mounted on selfie sticks - don't people just look at things any more? - but that's a rant for a different day.
Places to eat...
For a great lunch:
Gina (http://www.ginaroma.com/) - just near the Spanish Steps, bright and funky cafe with beautiful soups and salads and pasta, full of Italians on their lunch breaks.
For another great lunch:
Pianostrada (http://pianostrada.com/) - tiny place hidden down a tinier side street in Trastavere. Street food concept, with about 16 seats squeezed in, watching the food being prepped in front of us. Our starter decision was made easy by seeing a foccaccia come out of the oven - that, with fig jam and prosciutto, was possibly the nicest thing I've eaten. Ever. We also had a squash soup with all sorts of interesting flavours sprinkled on top (almond, orange, pickled something or other, parmesan), and a burger which was so beautifully flavoured and so tender that the meat element sort of melted into the rest of it to make one amazing whole. With craft beers. I want to go back...
For a great dinner:
Roscioli (http://www.salumeriaroscioli.com/restaurant/) - a deli and wine shop with tables tucked in amongst the shelves of wine. I had a burrata with sun dried tomatoes....basically a plateful of white, creamy cheese, with tomatoes. So. Much. Deliciousness. And two wine lists: 53 pages of Italian wine, and a second called "Foreign Wine". Really nice atmosphere and they were most kind when Martin poured his wine into his pasta...
And another great dinner:
Casa Coppelle (http://www.casacoppelle.com/) - a bit more fine dining, brilliant cocktails and really interesting menu (red prawn tartare on corn cream - for example!).
All in fairly easy walking distance of the Spanish steps.
I think my favourite sights were discovering the Trevi Fountain at night (having never seen a picture of it) - I raved about this for some time (I may have had some wine first); and also the Forum/Palatine and Colosseum - for sheer scale of archaeological interest. And for art, the collection at the Borghese Gallery (prebook a 2 hour slot) has lots of big hitters (Caravaggio, Bernini) in a very small space.
I have very few pictures - I think I was reacting to the selfie sticks...luckily I looked at things while I was there and have the memories of it!
Do go to Rome...
Sunday, 25 October 2015
A new blogging project: famous "little black dress" frocks
Those who know me will know that I love a blogging project, especially one which involves a list to work through. I've been dabbling recently with a bit of LinkedIn publishing, so this one has been a bit neglected and due some attention. If my HR insights (ha!) are the reason you're here, you might find more of interest over on LinkedIn...but for the more personal sewing/parenting/random burblings, this is the place to be.
The new project, then. For my birthday, I received a book called "Famous Frocks: the Little Black Dress" (this).
It has patterns for 20 garments based on ten iconic little black dresses - each one, a dress and a variation of some kind. It's a very beautiful and stylish book. I'm ever eager to improve my sewing skills, and this book uses lots of techniques that I've not yet tried...or have tried and failed (buttonholes...I'm looking at you), so I thought it would be a good set of projects to play with.
I can't promise to make all of the garments in the book - I'm not going to spend time and money making dresses that I know I won't wear - but I will have a crack at as many of them as I'm likely to wear, and blog about the process and outcomes. A very long drawn out review of the book, perhaps!!
First: Coco Chanel. Watch this space! Fabric to source first...
The new project, then. For my birthday, I received a book called "Famous Frocks: the Little Black Dress" (this).
It has patterns for 20 garments based on ten iconic little black dresses - each one, a dress and a variation of some kind. It's a very beautiful and stylish book. I'm ever eager to improve my sewing skills, and this book uses lots of techniques that I've not yet tried...or have tried and failed (buttonholes...I'm looking at you), so I thought it would be a good set of projects to play with.
I can't promise to make all of the garments in the book - I'm not going to spend time and money making dresses that I know I won't wear - but I will have a crack at as many of them as I'm likely to wear, and blog about the process and outcomes. A very long drawn out review of the book, perhaps!!
First: Coco Chanel. Watch this space! Fabric to source first...
Sunday, 4 October 2015
Being a sewing bore
I'm conscious that I've been tweeting a lot about sewing things lately so am going to try and get (most of) it out of my system with a blog post. If you read it, and you're bored, you only have yourself to blame!
I started sewing little girl clothes about 18 months ago, and then progressed into adult clothes in January this year, after a trip to Lisbon which has amazing fabric shops, where I bought some fabric that wasn't brightly coloured quilting cotton, and realised that I could make wearable clothes. I like a challenge, so have generally tried to introduce a new skill or fabric type each time I make something different, and have made quite a lot of things I'm pleased with. However, I'm a wobbly, inaccurate and messy sew-er, usually cobbling things together which look ok from the outside, with slightly wandering hems, but are a chaos of trailing threads and frayed seams waiting to happen, on the inside.
Bearing this in mind, I was very very VERY excited to receive an overlocker for my birthday. Overlockers (or sergers if you want to be American about it) are slightly industrial machines which use 3 or 4 threads to create immensely neat edges really quickly (sewing and cutting at the same time) - if you look inside something you're wearing now, and it has seams which are sort of encased in thread, that will be the work of an overlocker. This appeals to my desire for neatness, but also my innate laziness (who wants to spend time neatening seams? That's not the fun part), and my inner geek - more techniques to master.
Having been reading about them for a while, I'd built up a fear of threading it - apparently, according to the internet, this is hard. It came threaded, so after playing around with it for a bit, I took the fear head on, pulled all the threads out, then tried to follow the instructions. Thankfully, it worked, although tweezers are supplied and very necessary, and I didn't even have to resort to YouTube. If you think this is overdramatic - this is a picture of the mechanism:
And look at how neat and pretty the inside is (I still can't sew in a straight line though).
Next challenge: the straight line thing (possibly overrated), and working out what else I can with that fancy machine.
Phew. Ode to the overlocker over, I feel better now and will stop peppering your timelines with sewing tweets!
Does anyone else have an overlocker? What do you find it most useful for?
I started sewing little girl clothes about 18 months ago, and then progressed into adult clothes in January this year, after a trip to Lisbon which has amazing fabric shops, where I bought some fabric that wasn't brightly coloured quilting cotton, and realised that I could make wearable clothes. I like a challenge, so have generally tried to introduce a new skill or fabric type each time I make something different, and have made quite a lot of things I'm pleased with. However, I'm a wobbly, inaccurate and messy sew-er, usually cobbling things together which look ok from the outside, with slightly wandering hems, but are a chaos of trailing threads and frayed seams waiting to happen, on the inside.
Bearing this in mind, I was very very VERY excited to receive an overlocker for my birthday. Overlockers (or sergers if you want to be American about it) are slightly industrial machines which use 3 or 4 threads to create immensely neat edges really quickly (sewing and cutting at the same time) - if you look inside something you're wearing now, and it has seams which are sort of encased in thread, that will be the work of an overlocker. This appeals to my desire for neatness, but also my innate laziness (who wants to spend time neatening seams? That's not the fun part), and my inner geek - more techniques to master.
Having been reading about them for a while, I'd built up a fear of threading it - apparently, according to the internet, this is hard. It came threaded, so after playing around with it for a bit, I took the fear head on, pulled all the threads out, then tried to follow the instructions. Thankfully, it worked, although tweezers are supplied and very necessary, and I didn't even have to resort to YouTube. If you think this is overdramatic - this is a picture of the mechanism:
Threads in place, it all seems to be working. Slightly uncharacteristically, I'd prepared by cutting out the fabric for four different patterns the weekend before my birthday so that when I got my hands on the overlocker, with Martin away for most of last week, I'd be ready to sew. I was delighted that I did this - I might even do it more often as cutting out is my least favourite part of sewing! Things I've learned this week:
- Tacking darts makes them a whole lot easier to sew accurately
- Accuracy is suddenly a whole lot more important...cutting off the seam allowances as you go doesn't leave a whole lot of opportunity to unpick and make the garment bigger
- An overlocker is noisy
- A normal sewing machine feels very slow and tame ( a bit like driving a real car after playing Colin McRae on the XBox for a bit too long).
- I suddenly care a lot more about neatness and found myself hand sewing bits so that the seams wouldn't show on the outside, where I would normally have just used the machine for speed...I was aware of the ridiculousness of having two sewing machines on the table, whilst I was sat on the sofa with a needle and thread.
- Having two sewing machines out on the table makes the dining room look a bit like a sewing production line...the phrase "sweat shop" was used...
- I find it difficult to resist the lure of the machine - being left to myself in the house to tidy up on Saturday morning, I spent most of the time sewing in my pyjamas.
Next challenge: the straight line thing (possibly overrated), and working out what else I can with that fancy machine.
Phew. Ode to the overlocker over, I feel better now and will stop peppering your timelines with sewing tweets!
Does anyone else have an overlocker? What do you find it most useful for?
Friday, 28 August 2015
My new ninja life
Oh dear, I'm not doing very well at regular blogging here - I think because I'm quite committed to only blogging when I have something to say, and not for the sake of it, and apparently that doesn't happen very often!
So what momentous event has inspired me this time? Over the last few months, I've struggled to keep on top of volume...volume of work, information, communications, ideas, projects...and have felt like it is all a bit out of control.
I've had a book called "How to be a productivity ninja" by Graham Allcott (this one) on my bookshelf at home for a couple of years, and not quite got round to reading it. A friend ordered it after seeing my copy and then raved about it, thus inspiring me to not only read it, but to carry out the practical exercises as I went through.
And oh my word - why did I not read it when I got it?!
I'm not going to outline all the principles and tools in the book - read it if you want the detail, you won't regret it - but just to give you a flavour, it approaches time management from a completely different perspective from the traditional urgent/important/well prioritised to do list angle. Rather, it accepts that for knowledge workers (the vast majority of people doing a desk based job), the likelihood is that there will always be too much to do, and too much to take in. The focus is therefore on creating a way of working that allows you to manage the information effectively, and maintain clarity of purpose to help you understand what to prioritise, and leave space for the creative thinking which is part of most roles...and particularly mine at the moment!
The ideas which I've found most helpful are...
...viewing email as just another input of information rather than a to do list, so just touching each email once, making a decision about it, and capturing actions
...creating quality thinking "boss" time to organise your actions and projects, knowing what your specific next action is on each, making it easier to then get into productive flow in doing/"worker" mode and get lots done as you don't have to waste time working out what needs to be done before you can do it
...having a master actions list where I am confident I've captured everything (quietening the nagging worries that undermine productivity), and choosing a realistic number of items from it to achieve each day, rather than constantly being faced by an ill-defined list of everything I haven't done yet
...and more!
I'm sure that there are other ways of organising work which will achieve the same sort of clarity, but I'm finding myself able to be so much more productive (and more than that, much more creative) because I know that I've captured everything, been clear on my next action, and rid myself of the nagging fear that something is lurking in my inbox ready to catch me out.
If you're finding yourself drowning in email and other information inputs, and struggling to get to a point where you're confident that you know everything that needs to be done (let alone doing it effectively!) I can thoroughly recommend reading this. I'm not being sponsored to recommend it, by the way - I just found it really, really useful.
The side benefit (or biggest benefit?!) of feeling much more organised is that I'm more able to switch off on my non-working day because I'm confident everything is under control. Which means that I have the time and energy to spend Wednesday doing things like making enormous cardboard castles for a pending 4 year old's birthday party,making a small Rapunzel very happy:
A win all round, I think you'll agree.
So what momentous event has inspired me this time? Over the last few months, I've struggled to keep on top of volume...volume of work, information, communications, ideas, projects...and have felt like it is all a bit out of control.
I've had a book called "How to be a productivity ninja" by Graham Allcott (this one) on my bookshelf at home for a couple of years, and not quite got round to reading it. A friend ordered it after seeing my copy and then raved about it, thus inspiring me to not only read it, but to carry out the practical exercises as I went through.
And oh my word - why did I not read it when I got it?!
I'm not going to outline all the principles and tools in the book - read it if you want the detail, you won't regret it - but just to give you a flavour, it approaches time management from a completely different perspective from the traditional urgent/important/well prioritised to do list angle. Rather, it accepts that for knowledge workers (the vast majority of people doing a desk based job), the likelihood is that there will always be too much to do, and too much to take in. The focus is therefore on creating a way of working that allows you to manage the information effectively, and maintain clarity of purpose to help you understand what to prioritise, and leave space for the creative thinking which is part of most roles...and particularly mine at the moment!
The ideas which I've found most helpful are...
...viewing email as just another input of information rather than a to do list, so just touching each email once, making a decision about it, and capturing actions
...creating quality thinking "boss" time to organise your actions and projects, knowing what your specific next action is on each, making it easier to then get into productive flow in doing/"worker" mode and get lots done as you don't have to waste time working out what needs to be done before you can do it
...having a master actions list where I am confident I've captured everything (quietening the nagging worries that undermine productivity), and choosing a realistic number of items from it to achieve each day, rather than constantly being faced by an ill-defined list of everything I haven't done yet
...and more!
I'm sure that there are other ways of organising work which will achieve the same sort of clarity, but I'm finding myself able to be so much more productive (and more than that, much more creative) because I know that I've captured everything, been clear on my next action, and rid myself of the nagging fear that something is lurking in my inbox ready to catch me out.
If you're finding yourself drowning in email and other information inputs, and struggling to get to a point where you're confident that you know everything that needs to be done (let alone doing it effectively!) I can thoroughly recommend reading this. I'm not being sponsored to recommend it, by the way - I just found it really, really useful.
The side benefit (or biggest benefit?!) of feeling much more organised is that I'm more able to switch off on my non-working day because I'm confident everything is under control. Which means that I have the time and energy to spend Wednesday doing things like making enormous cardboard castles for a pending 4 year old's birthday party,making a small Rapunzel very happy:
A win all round, I think you'll agree.
Monday, 1 June 2015
Preparing to fly - or, how I use Pinterest to make my life way more complicated than it needs to be.
We are going on holiday soon and, about a month ago, work commitments for the husband were going to mean that the three year old and I had to fly by ourselves, whilst he followed later that day.
I'll be honest, I may have panicked a little. (A lot). I haven't ever flown on my own with her before, and the prospect (on Easyjet) wasn't particularly inviting.
I decided that the way to cope was by making sure she had plenty of things to entertain her on the plane...after all, we are going to be in the air for all of 90 minutes, so heaven forbid she should be bored.
So, rather than turning to the sticker book shelf at the Works (other budget sticker suppliers are available), I for some reason decided to search "free paper doll printables" on Pinterest, and get a bit over-excited by what I found. Cue totally unnecessary Pinterest overdrive...but miraculously no true Pinterest fails!
There's a lot out there. All done for you so you don't need any artistic abilities. Just a printer, scissors, and perhaps some double-sided sticky tape. And some card. And some glue. And duplo bricks. Oh, and a craft knife.
The three year old will therefore be flying with...
I'll be honest, I may have panicked a little. (A lot). I haven't ever flown on my own with her before, and the prospect (on Easyjet) wasn't particularly inviting.
I decided that the way to cope was by making sure she had plenty of things to entertain her on the plane...after all, we are going to be in the air for all of 90 minutes, so heaven forbid she should be bored.
So, rather than turning to the sticker book shelf at the Works (other budget sticker suppliers are available), I for some reason decided to search "free paper doll printables" on Pinterest, and get a bit over-excited by what I found. Cue totally unnecessary Pinterest overdrive...but miraculously no true Pinterest fails!
There's a lot out there. All done for you so you don't need any artistic abilities. Just a printer, scissors, and perhaps some double-sided sticky tape. And some card. And some glue. And duplo bricks. Oh, and a craft knife.
The three year old will therefore be flying with...
Frozen mix and match duplo (made using free Frozen printable from Red Ted Art - here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438897694/ and the idea from here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438901369/). To be fair she found this in the bag and played with it until I took it off her...it may have a longer shelf life than the flight.
My little pony paper jigsaw (printable from here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438897668/). Pretty but that's a lot of very tiny cutting out. Including applying a tiny bit of double sided tape to each piece so she can stick them together on the plane without a pritt stick...(it was during this cutting out that I decided on the title of this post).
And what I was originally looking for - printable paper dolls - these from here: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/272397477438897702/ but there are loads out there. Again, a lot of cutting, plus a bit of sticking to put the dolls onto card, but no double sided tape this time.
As it turns out, the husband is flying with us after all, my panic has subsided somewhat, and I now realise that I have totally over-prepared for a very short flight, and have started to develop scissor blisters after two solid evenings of cutting out tiny things. This would never have happened before Pinterest...my total absence of artistic ability would have killed all of the ideas way before the cutting stage.
On a plus side, we're holidaying with my mother and sisters who will all, I suspect, enjoying reliving our childhood holidays (with less canvas and less rain) by playing with and designing outfits for the dress up dolls, so hopefully the effort won't be entirely wasted. Bring on the flight!
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